Daryl Hall and Elvis Costello at Ravinia: I wish I had see this concert twenty years ago
Do you music lovers out there have a bucket list of musicians you’d like to see? I certainly do. Close to the top of my list were Elvis Costello and Daryl Hall & John Oates. I was very interested when I learned that Costello and Hall—sorry, no Oates, more on him in a bit—were working on a dual-headling tour. And when it was announced that they would be playing at Ravinia, I was all in. This was the concert I was most anticipating this summer.
I’ve been a huge fan of Elvis since his beginning records beginning in the late 1970s. It’s hard to fit his music into a particular genre, but he played a major role in the move from the singer-songwriter era in the early 1970s to new wave music. It’s also been noted that he was a punk rocker with more mature songwriting. It doesn’t matter how you categorize him, I loved his tunes—especially the early ones.
His set began with “Pump It Up” and “Watching the Detectives.” Elvis and his band, The Imposters were rocking it from the start. There was some tasty guitar work from both Elvis and Charlie Sexton.
I noticed that the sound mix had the musical instruments overshadowing Costello’s vocals. Talking about the vocals, Elvis’ voice sounded much like it did in the 1970s. You never listened to him for his vocals, with Costello it was all about the music and lyrics. But at a time when many of his contemporaries are dealing with voice issues, it’s refreshing to hear one that sounds the same as the good old days.
Other highlights of the show were “Every Day I Write The Book” and his encore duo of “Alison” and “What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding.” All in all, it was an entertaining fourteen-song set. I wish I had seen him decades earlier—but better late than never.
The headliner for the evening was Daryl Hall. If you’ve been following the pop music news you’ve most likely heard the relationship between Hall and his former partner John Oates has been contentious. Between all the nasty words and multiple lawsuits, you will unlikely ever see them perform together again. It’s so bad that there isn’t a mention of Hall & Oates, by name, in Hall’s bio in the Ravinia July program. Get this:
“Daryl Hall has played Ravinia four times between 1997 and 2014 in his longtime duo band.”
Okay—we get it. After fifty years together, you can’t stand the dude anymore. It happens to plenty of bands and relationships—so let’s move on to the highs and lows from Daryl Hall’s first solo Ravinia performance.
The first song is “Maneater.” It’s a good choice for an opener, but almost from the beginning, you could tell that Hall has issues with his voice. The problem is, like so many singers of his era, he can’t hit those high notes at age seventy-seven anymore. He works it out by either singing in a lower octave or by having the backing vocalists in his band hit those notes.
Talking about the band, man, these guys can play. Saxophonist Charlie DeChant took center stage on a few extended Sax solos. Honestly, the actual music from these excellent musicians was the best part of his set.
As for the rest of the setlist, it has all the hits you came to see. Out of the twelve-song set, nine of them are classic H&O hits. Included were “Rich Girls”, “Private Eyes” and the encore closer, “You Make My Dreams.” If that’s what you were hoping to see, and I admit that I was, you got your money’s worth.
So while I was disappointed with Hall’s voice and some other technical issues when you combine the songs with Elvis Costello’s performance and a perfect night for an outdoor concert, It was a pretty good night of music. Plus, I got to knock off two from my musical bucket list. Not too bad.